You don't have enough oil you will be okay.........

What's your take on poker being "legal" in DC? I live in College Park and can still access and play money tables on FTP.

Does anyone find it fishy what OP states in this thread, as far as bank merchants being cleared to process online poker deposits recently, and the DOJ stamping out the industry leaders shortly thereafter?

Smells a lot like the path is being cleared for US based B&Ms to get all the business.

Same here.

Can't this be made a 2+2 announcement? I don't browse forums much so it took me quite some time before I realised what had happened (I found out from fivethirtyeight.com, in fact).

Does FT still have control of their email addresses that were @fulltiltpoker.com or should we assume those were seized? If the latter, will the gov have a hell of a good time reading everyones freaking out emails?

I will admit I haven't researched this issue as much as most around here -- and I would put the standard "this is not legal advice" disclaimer on what I'm about to say -- but on a very broad and generic level, poker isn't "illegal" in a lot of places/states in the US. But it's not a local/state/etc. law that forms the basis of the DOJ action. What you can do legally, if confined within a state, doesn't mean much when the problem is transferring money to/from banks interstate or internationally.

no, each domain is unique

Still playing on Full Tilt. Scared to death to close it. Don't wanna lose it.

Just my opinion but I thinik we are safer with funds @ Tilt and Stars than with a 3rd party payment processor in the U.S.

This paragraph found on page 25 of the full indictment scares me....

"b. On or about January 20, 2009, PokerStars, Full Tilt poker, and Absolute Poker each received an electronic transfer of funds from a gambler located in the Southern District of NewYork"

There is no further elaboration so its hard to tell exactly what it means. Hopefully they don't start coming after players.

This theory has got to die. It is not the case.

There are two facts about this seizure that a lot of people are missing:

1. It is just the latest in a long string of seizures and prosecutions initiated against online gambling and internet poker by the US Attorney for the Southern District of New York.

2. The seizures by the US Attorney in the SDNY are not official or national DOJ policy. This is a campaign being waged against internet gambling and poker by one (lunatic, self-aggrandizing) federal prosecutor in New York. That office a. operates, as all US Attorneys operate, essentially without supervision from DC, and b. has been behind all of the seizures.

So when you say that maybe this is clearing the path for the Vegas casinos to enter the online market, you're assuming that there is some reason a federal prosecutor in New York would bring to bear all of the resources of his office to hook up Harrah's. It's crazy.

This didn't happen out of the blue--this prosecutor's office has been doing stuff like this for years. Most of you just never noticed because it never personally affected you before today.

The reason that this seizure seems out of step with other developments (the introduction of legislation on capitol hill, the Wynn/stars partnership, etc.) is simply because the USA for SDNY is operating independently of Washington.

This paragraph exists mainly to establish that jurisdiction exists in the sdny. no worries.

The US controls ICANN(sp). The agency that issues IPs and domain names. Since it is a semi-autonomous government sponsored agency they generally do what they are told. There was an effort by the Bush Administration to turn the internet governing body over to the UN but the deal fell apart.

The DOJ is currently using the Dept of Homeland Security to seize domains left and right. MP3 pirates, Spam farms, Torrents, etc have all been targeted the last six months or so. Google it.

made a bank wire cashout earlier today and this is the response i get (note: i am not from the U.S. but from southeast asia both by location and citizenship) WTF

Hello,

Thank you for your email.

We regret to inform you that in light of recent developments, PokerStars is
no longer offering real money play to US residents.

We are currently assessing the situation and will communicate with all of
our players as soon as possible.

We apologise for the inconvenience this is causing.

what about money that we have made so far for rakeback? will we ever see that money?

I'd be willing to bet you never went to law school and are just a lonely soul looking for attention on the internet

Maybe a somewhat interesting article about the US Attorney for the Southern District of New York:

(Note that he has "a strong sense of right and wrong.")


http://www.wnyc.org/articles/wnyc-ne...le-prosecutor/

Good to know, thank you.

The domain names were siezed, not the servers or mail servers. That means that the site redirects to the DOJ/FBI "warning", the client may refer to the IP address directly as well as several other IPs and domain names, and the e-mails are going to either come back as undeliverable or get dropped out in the nothingness that is the internet and lost completely (except for being recorded in your ISP's "sent mail".) That's what I said concerning New Jesrsey's efforts to make their Atlantic City's B&Ms online sites able to offer online poker and other games and wagers. Especially since New York and New Jersey are mentioned in the DOJ's notification of the seizure. "Mr. BHARARA also thanked Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s New York and New Jersey offices".

I've tried to send e-mails to blackcard@fulltiltpoker.com (I am a qualified member) and support@fulltiltpoker.com and both came back undeliverable. I was able to spend my remaining FTP's on some shades though, and got a confirmation e-mail...so I have no idea what this means.

The U.S. government can s*** my d***

+1 they can lick my stick

I'm not going to withdraw from Stars or Tilt. I feel much more secure leaving the money in the account with Stars or Tilt than cashing out and having it stuck with a busted payment processor somewhere.